LL pulling the plug on selling Linden Dollars?

I heard this rumour about 5 minutes ago, that Linden labs are supposedly entertaining the idea of removing the ability for us to sell Linden $ for RL cash. Now it's *just* a rumour, which I was told had filtered down from a representitive of Linden labs orginally, so you should treat this (admittedly shaky) information as such. But what if they decide to do this? - What do you think will happen to Second Life...?

Have to admit, I'm a little concerned myself...

That would wreak havoc. Many people use L$ sales to pay USD-denominated tier obligations. It's a key part of SL's economy (and LL's as well) -- I can't see that going away, to be honest.

Two words: The end.

It would certainly be the end of SL for me and countless others and the beginning of a huge class action lawsuit.

Not going to happen.

Period.

Why?

Ummm.....one name: Anshe Chung.

If she couldn't cash out, then she'd have no reason to be a land baron. All the tier she pays LL would vanish and their profits would feel that hit.

She'd be far from the only one. I use her name as a well known figure and probably the largest single impact of such. The loss of all the profit to LL from such a venture would cripple if not kill the company which has built their foundation on such trading venues.

Slap whoever told you that rumour.

~Jessy

Unless LL is seriously considering ditching SL, I don't think that will happen.

Unless it was a legal mandate by the feds like if the FBI was considering it as part of the gambling ban. If this is case, we would all be thoroughly screwed by the U.S. government. Would not be the first time.

I would still get a lawyer.

Quite possible I guess. That would too bad for all you guys that have quality businesses going.

Who Spread this rumor?

A couple of famous Posters from the last week?

I hate rumors. And rumours.

I heard you have crabs...

No. Sideways is still missing. I think he must be seagull poop by now.

If that were to happen, it would have a substantial impact on everything in SL -- beginning with the real estate industry and impacting everything else both directly and indirectly.

I suppose real estate owners could require their sub-owners and tenants to pay rent/tier in USD outside of SL (and I suppose content creators could do so as well with respect to buying things in SL) -- which gets pretty cumbersome and would have a really negative impact on the entire real estate industry to say the least (most folks won't be wanting to make USD payments outside of SL to people relating to virtual land or other products in SL, I think, and the potential for fraud is substantial). If the Linden is no longer convertible, I'd expect business owners and real estate holders to switch directly to USD for transactions, otherwise none of the money made in the game can be used to pay some or all of the USD-denominated obligations to LL.

Phew. Thank you. Yes, that would be a worst case solution.

*hangs up from being on hold with 1-800-LAWYER.*

Not gonna happen.

If they even tentatively considered this, they would, at the very least, have to make it possible to pay for tier and to make scheduled player-to-player payments with Linden dollars, or else a whole lot of people will be unable to make their land payments.

Personally, if I couldn't cash out most of what I earn in-world, there would be no sense in me developing anything new. I couldn't possibly spend enough in-world to keep my avvie from being burried in L$. Especially if I lost the ability to convert that income into a form that could pay for my land maintenance.

I think most content developers would quit, if there wasn't at least *some* chance to earn real money to offset the costs of doing business here. And virtually all the private island owners and sim developers would go broke, or would have to accept only external payments for services in-world.

Nope. Simply not going to happen.

Lets say it happened.

Linden Lab needs to get rid of L$

----------------------------
So all L$ currently out there become worthless.

Store owners will no longer accept L$ for their products - it will have to be handled in USD$

A lot of people who earn L$ without buying it on the LindenX will no longer be able to.

Clubs shut down becuase they wont want to have ACTUAL employees. Plus without the $L they cant pay tier.

People would stop renting, etc. Those concerned with Identity theft would stop making even USD purchases.

-----------------------

While I can see them transfering to a USD economy in a world of Open Source services, them doing it with the Grid as it exists today seems pretty wild.

It would seriously wreck the economy for a long time, and take a while for people to adapt to the new way.

Sounds like nonsense to me. SL would cease to exist...

Even if LL were to stop buying Lindens couldn't places like slexchange still buy them? Lindens could still be bought and sold, but just not directly to LL on their website.

I agree though, that it would decimate SL. But it would continue on, albeit as a very different game with an "underground" economy.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Slexchange is separate from LL, right? If LL dumps the Lindex, Slexchange still could do business as normal. In fact, its profits could be expected to go up significantly, since it would have a virtual monopoly on Linden exchange and a new flow of customers who might also buy something in the marketplace.

I can't see Linden Lab un-GOM'ming the Lindex, to be honest. Too much of a cash earner.

Unless there's real life legal interference behind this.

Broccoli

We're already not allowed to sell Linden $ for RL cash. That's been the case since at least January this year. You're supposed to use an exchange instead.

More here: http://secondlife.com/developers/api/risk.php
So who told you?

People claim all kinds of secret affiliations with Lindens. Either this is a case of chinese whispers (which started with the information in my first paragraph) or one of your friends needs to feel special.

Assuming there is ANY truth to your rumor, was this rumor in regards to totally getting rid of the Linden currency or was it in regards to Linden Labs relinquishing control over the currency to someone else?

Getting rid of the Linden currency would simply make SL a game or force the use of a RL currency, which would then make anyone with NO PAYMENT INFO unable to participate. Either way it seems like a bad idea. The Linden currency is a micro-payment system which is allowing SL to grow, and down the road can be expanded for use as a web micro-payment system (something which has long been discussed in the e-Commerce area, but remains largely untapped on the web as a whole). I have to think that the early investors in SL, Amazon and eBay, would be very interested in having this sort of micro-payment system succeed?

Conversely, instead of scrapping it, they could look at having oversight and management by an international non-profit board of some sort or perhaps PayPal, but totally closing it down would be the final straw for SL.

Has Dan Linden been let out of his Cubicle again?

So, does this mean that that LindenX would GOM itself?

I would imagine that things would revert to 3rd party exchanges like they were back when I first started.

I have often considered this potential scenario myself.

Partly because money in the form of Lindens is a "game" sort of thing, and LL hates to think of themselves as running a game, and has been spending the entire time I've been in SL trying to get rid of the "game" aspects they started the game with.

However, since they Gom'd Gom, they have been making quite the pretty penny off selling Lindens (I forget how much, but maybe someone remembers - it's in the millions, I believe). So one would think they wouldn't want to get rid of the Lindex.

But maybe it might be potential legal problems, caused by printing and selling game token money, and/or running an exchange for it. I just don't know - seems to me that would be perfectly legal, but on the other hand, seems to me that might be viewed by the Feds somehow as printing a new form of money.

In any case, I have thought to myself whether I would continue on if I had to start charging people real money. I guess that would depend on how difficult and/or annoying it would be to get all that set up, and how difficult/annoying it would be to administer it (someone has mentioned chargebacks on Pay-Pal, for instance, once the item has been delivered).

coco

Darn it - I told you to Duct Tape him to his Swively Chair.